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Jason Kenney’s cabinet will be revealed April 30 — and his first bit of business is to repeal the carbon tax

EDMONTON—Alberta’s new United Conservative government will present its cabinet to the province at the end of April and target the carbon tax and jobs with new bills to be introduced in May.

A day after becoming premier-elect, Jason Kenney travelled to Edmonton and held a press conference, where he laid out the next steps for his majority government, which secured 63 seats in the legislature. Outside Edmonton, which boasts many of the 24 NDP seats, the United Conservatives swept most of the rest of the province.

Official results could be delayed until April 26 and there’s a possibility some ridings may swing in other directions after all the votes are counted. However, many of the seats are locked in.

“Yesterday, over 55 per cent of voters cast ballots for United Conservative candidates, for our positive plan to get Alberta back to work,” Kenney said on Wednesday.

April 30 is the day Albertans will learn who Kenney has chosen as his cabinet ministers. He also said that he hopes to have the first session of the legislature under his newly formed government in the third week of May.

Kenney said Bill 1 will be the “Carbon Tax Repeal Act” and Bill 2 will be the “Open for Business Act.” The corporate tax cut plan Kenney had campaigned on will also have its initial phases implemented in the first session of the legislature, he said.

“We will seek to be a government for all Albertans, and I mean that,” said Kenney.

“Of course, not every Albertan will agree with all of our policies that we ran on or that we implement, but I can give you this commitment: We will listen, and we will seek to act in good faith.”

On April 30, Kenney said he’ll also look to proclaim the “turn off the taps” legislation, Bill 12, which gives him the power to stop the oil flowing to British Columbia in response to the province’s protests against the Trans Mountain pipeline. He hopes to be able to speak with the B.C. government and work out their differences — all the while armed with the new legislation.

“Then I think we sit down with the government of British Columbia with greater strength and clarity about the tools that Alberta can use to defend our vital economic interests,” he said.

Throughout his campaign, Kenney kept the drums beating around jobs, the economy and pipelines — but he could face more immediate problems now that he has a government to form since at least one UCP MLA-elect, Peter Singh, is under RCMP investigation.

“He won his seat, I’m not aware of any accusations against Peter, so this is a gentleman who was elected to the legislature last night,” Kenney said when asked about Singh’s win in the Calgary-East riding.

Just days before voters went to the polls, Singh’s business was searched by RCMP and a recent CBC story quoted his lawyer saying the probe was connected to allegations of voter irregularities in the 2017 UCP leadership race. The Star sent an email to Singh’s lawyer, but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.

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In February, former UCP MLA Prab Gill wrote to the RCMP and alleged that there was a campaign of mass voter fraud carried out by Kenney’s team in the party’s leadership contest. Reports have suggested that the police have been interviewing people involved, but the nature of the investigation is unclear.

Kenney has previously called into question Gill’s credibility, since he left the party over a ballot-stuffing controversy, and has also said that while his lawyers have been in touch with police, that he didn’t think there was an investigation ongoing.

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